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A vigorous, large growing selection that seems to do better in the greenhouse than outside, though that may be
because I feed it in the greenhouse, and forget to outside. There are a number of giant forms of the SArum lily being circulated and they have become confused.
'White Giant has very sturdy upright flower stems and white spotted leaves. Plants in the UK all seem to have originated with imports from Plant Delights nursery. Plant Delights nursery say: "We first saw this giant calla lily at the California garden of plantsman/garden writer Sonny Garcia and were blown away. Lining the walkway were these giant, green and white speckled-leaved Zantedeschia aethiopica, whose foliage topped out above waist high. Even more amazing were the 6' tall flower stems towering above our heads. The flower is the classic, large, creamy-white cup typical of the species ...except Zantedeschia 'White Giant' has been doing some really good steroids. In our garden, we have only been able to muster 4' tall stems, 2' long x 1' wide foliage and 5.5' tall flower spikes, but that's still not bad. Keep in mind the height increases each year as the diameter of the tubers increase." San Marcos Growers say: "The 'White Giant' selection first came to us in 2007 from Tony Avent of Plant Delights nursery who noted that he got it at the San Francisco of Sonny Garcia, where he noted the flowers reached above his head. Tony later told us that Sean Hogan of Cistus Nursery told him that this plant was a seedling plant that he selected while he was the University of California, Berkeley, Botanic Garden where he curated the South African, New Zealand, Australian, New World Desert and the California Native Cultivar Gardens from the mid-1980's to the mid-1990s however, there had previously been an introduction of a plant called Zantedeschia aethiopica 'White Giant' from before 1914 by a N. de Bruyn. Confusing the issue further, in the late 1980s we received a very similar plant called Zantedeschia aethiopica 'Hercules'. We received this plant from garden designer Eric Nagelmann, who had purchased it at Western Hills Nursery in Occidental, California. There is some thought that these two plants, 'White Giant' and 'Hercules' are the same clone and adding even more to muddle up this story is that some seedling plants lacking white spots in their leaves were also grown using the name 'Hercules'. Though we still have our original 'Hercules with spotted leaves in the garden, we never produced it in the nursery but started growing and selling 'White Giant' in 2006 when it became available to us in plugs supplied to us by Shady Oaks Nursery in Michigan from their micropropagation (tissue culture) laboratory. We discontinued producing it in 2013 when Shady Oaks Nursery closed but fortunately it was picked up by another tissue culture lab and so we were able to add it back into production in 2017 and continue to grow it to this day. " |
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| 24th April 2014 | ||
